[High-dose short-term antibiotic therapy in bacteremia and infection in severely burned patients]

60 to 70% of all late deaths in patients with severe burns are due to sepsis. Thus, treatment with antibiotics is essential in the overall management of such patients, which in our hospital is carried out according to the following principles: 1. No prophylactic antibiotic treatment. 2. Careful evaluation of the bacterial spectrum of the burns, nasopharyngeal area, anal region, sputum and blood cultures. 3. In case of bacteriaemia we start high-dose combination therapy with two different, specific chemotherapeutic agents, given alternately every 4 to 6 hours. 4. In concordance with the clinical picture antibiotic therapy is discontinued as soon as three subsequent blood cultures remain sterile. Since 1980, 58 patients with severe burns (extent: 20 to 90% of body surface) have been treated according to these principles. Mortality due to sepsis was low, namely 9.5% (2 out of 21 patients presenting with bacteriaemia), so that our method of treatment has proven to be effective.